I was born in Middlesex, England in 1961 and it was at the age of 12, after discovering my gift of creating intricate and beautiful pictures, that I won my first painting competition.

However, this early artistic talent came second to other commitments whilst growing up in an unconventional family where both my parents were blind. The continuing support and home care they required throughout my childhood meant that my school years suffered and the opportunities for early artistic guidance were missed. My talents went unnoticed and, of course, were not even apparent to my parents.

However, ironically, it is this unusual and difficult childhood that almost certainly contributed to my unique ability to express myself through colour and emotion in art. Growing up in a world where the sense of sight cannot be relied upon forces the use of other senses and forms of expression.

It is this unconventional childhood that lead me to the totally self taught artist that I am today.

I spent my time after leaving what little schooling there was experimenting with different styles and techniques, and found myself in popular demand painting murals, stage backdrops and designing costumes earning me a basic level of income. This time enabled me to focus on developing my own style of acrylic cubism and since then I have continued to work on my range of unique and instantly recognisable images expressing the entwined complexities of human emotion.

I constantly strive for perfection and draw influence from different ends of the spectrum; from Picasso and Braque’s ground breaking work in Cubism, to the more modern artists and the likes of David Shepherd and Richard Symonds. It is these modern artists in particular that have been a great inspiration to my intricate pencil portrayals of animal life, with each illustration taking at least 100 hours to plan and detail to achieve the life-like, almost photographic, images I strive to achieve.

In recent years I have been fortunate enough to get my work into The National Exhibition of Wildlife Art.

Last year I had the honour of getting 2 pieces of my work through to the finals of The David Shepherd Artist of the Year 2011.